Towards a Role for Clinical Pathology Diagnostics for Childhood Maltreatment

Recent reports from the Center for Disease Control and Kaiser Permanente demonstrate that early life adverse experience leads to morbidity and mortality in adulthood. To date there are no objective tests that help care-givers or local child protective services make informed decisions for children with a history of abuse, neglect or trauma. This is the first report from a new group of trans-disciplinary investigators describing a new approach to identify the biological impact of childhood maltreatment using clinical pathology testing. Such new quantitative measurements will be useful to identify children at risk for poor mental and physical health outcomes and to follow response to interventions.

Glycyrrhetinic Acid-Mediated Polymeric Drug Delivery Targeting the Acidic Microenvironment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

PURPOSE

The major hurdle of current drug carrier against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the lack of specific and selective drug delivery to HCC. In this study, a novel glycyrrhetinic acid (GA) and poly(L-Histidine) (PHIS) mediated polymeric drug delivery system was developed to target HCC that have GA binding receptors and release its encapsulated anticancer drug in the acidic microenvironment of HCC.

METHODS

Firstly, GA and PHIS were conjugated to form poly (ethylene glycol)-poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) (GA-PEG-PHIS-PLGA, GA-PPP) micelles by grafting reaction between active terminal groups. Secondly, andrographolide (AGP) was encapsulated to GA-PPP to make AGP/GA-PPP using the solvent evaporation method. The pH-responsive property of AGP/GA-PPP micelles was validated by monitoring its stability and drug release behavior in different pH conditions. Furthermore, selective hepatocellular uptake of GA-PPP micelles in vitro, liver specific drug accumulation in vivo, as well as the enhanced antitumor effects of AGP/GA-PPP micelles confirmed the HCC targeting property of our novel drug delivery system.

RESULTS

Average size of AGP/GA-PPP micelles increased significantly and the encapsulated AGP released faster in vitro at pH 5.0, while micelles keeping stable in pH 7.4. AGP/GA-PPP micelles were uptaken more efficiently by human Hep3B liver cells than that by human MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. GA-PPP micelles accumulated specifically in the liver and possessed long retention time in vivo. AGP/GA-PPP micelles significantly inhibited tumor growth and provided better therapeutic outcomes compared to free AGP and AGP/PEG-PLGA(AGP/PP) micelles without GA and PHIS decoration.

CONCLUSIONS

This novel GA-PPP polymeric carrier is promising for targeted treatment of HCC.

Neonatal Overfeeding in Female Mice Predisposes the Development of Obesity in their Male Offspring via Altered Central Leptin Signalling

The prevalence of obesity among child-bearing women has increased significantly. The adverse consequences of maternal obesity on the descendants have been well accepted, although few studies have examined the underlying mechanisms. We investigated whether neonatal overfeeding in female mice alters metabolic phenotypes in the offspring and whether hypothalamic leptin signalling is involved. Neonatal overfeeding was induced by reducing the litter size to three pups per litter, in contrast to normal litter size of 10 pups per litter. Normal and neonatally overfed female mice were bred with normal male mice, and offspring of overfeeding mothers (OOM) and control mothers (OCM) were generated. We examined body weight, daily food intake, leptin responsiveness and the number of positive neurones for phosphorylated-signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (pSTAT3) along with neuropeptide Y (NPY) in the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus (ARH) and NPY in the nucleus tractus solitarius (NTS) of the brain stem. The body weight and daily food intake of OOM were significantly higher than those of OCM. Leptin significantly reduced food intake and increased the number of pSTAT3 positive neurones in the ARH of OCM mice, whereas no significant changes in food intake and pSTAT3 neurones were found in leptin-treated OOM mice. The number of NPY neurones in the ARH and NTS of the OOM mice was significantly higher than that of OCM mice. The results of the present study indicate that the obese phenotype from mothers can be passed onto the subsequent generation, which is possibly associated with hypothalamic leptin resistance.

Lentinan exerts synergistic apoptotic effects with paclitaxel in A549 cells via activating ROS-TXNIP-NLRP3 inflammasome

Paclitaxel is generally used to treat cancers in clinic as an inhibitor of cell division. However, the acquired resistance in tumours limits its clinical efficacy. Therefore, the aim of this study was to detect whether co-treatment with lentinan enhanced the anti-cancer effects of paclitaxel in A549 cells. We found that the combination of paclitaxel and lentinan resulted in a significantly stronger inhibition on A549 cell proliferation than paclitaxel treatment alone. Co-treatment with paclitaxel and lentinan enhanced cell apoptosis rate by inducing caspase-3 activation. Furthermore, co-treatment with paclitaxel and lentinan significantly triggered reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and increased thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) expression. Moreover, co-treatment with paclitaxel and lentinan enhanced TXNIP-NLRP3 interaction, and activated NLRP3 inflammasome whereat interleukin-1β levels were increased and cell apoptosis was induced. In addition, combination of paclitaxel and lentinan could activate apoptosis signal regulating kinase-1 (ASK1)/p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signal which also contributed to cell apoptosis. Taken together, co-treatment with paclitaxel and lentinan exerts synergistic apoptotic effects in A549 cells through inducing ROS production, and activating NLRP3 inflammasome and ASK1/p38 MAPK signal pathway.

Structural characterization and anticancer activity of cell-bound exopolysaccharide from Lactobacillus helveticus MB2-1

A novel cell-bound exopolysaccharide (c-EPS) was isolated from Lactobacillus helveticus MB2-1 by ultrasonic extraction, anion exchange, and gel filtration chromatography before being structurally characterized. The c-EPS is a heteropolysaccharide with an average molecular weight of 1.83 × 10(5) Da and is composed of glucose, mannose, galactose, rhamnose, and arabinose at a molar ratio of 3.12:1.01:1.00:0.18:0.16. Methylation analysis and nuclear magnetic resonance analysis revealed that the c-EPS is a linear glucomannogalactan containing repeating units of → 6)-β-D-Manp-(1 → 3)-β-D-Glcp-(1 → 3)-β-D-Glcp-(1 → 3)-β-D-Glcp-(1 → 4)-α-D-Galp-(1 → and trace amounts of Rhap-(1 → and (1 → 4)-Arap residues. Complex formation with Congo red demonstrated a triple-strand helical conformation for the c-EPS. Scanning electron microscopy of the c-EPS revealed many regular feather-like structural units. Topographical examination of c-EPS by atomic force microscopy revealed that the c-EPS formed rounded-to-spherical lumps with different sizes and chain formations. Furthermore, preliminary in vitro tests revealed that c-EPS significantly inhibited the proliferation of HepG-2, BGC-823, and especially HT-29 cancer cells.

Identification of aac(2')-I type b aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme genes in resistant Acinetobacter baumannii

The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism underlying the drug resistance of Acinetobacter baumannii toward aminoglycosides. A total of 32 A. baumannii strains were identified by molecular identification and subsequently isolated. The isolates were then amplified by polymerase chain reaction to analyze the 9 aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme genes and 7 16S rRNA methylase genes. Five types of aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme genes and 1 type of 16S rRNA methylase gene were detected in the 32 drug-resistant A. baumannii strains. Positive genes included 7 detection modes, of which the all-6-gene-positive mode aac(2')-Ib+aac(3)-I+aac(6')-Ib+ant(3'')-I+aph(3')-I+armA exhibited the largest number of strains (12, 37.5%). The resistance of A. baumannii against aminoglycosides resulted from the presence of 5 types of aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme genes and the 16S rRNA methylase gene armA. This study is the first to isolate the aac(2')-Ib aminoglycoside-modifying enzyme gene from A. baumannii in a domestic clinical setting.

Association of alcohol use disorders with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: a Swedish national cohort study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Cigarette smoking is associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but the association between alcohol consumption and ALS is not clear. Our aim was to clarify this using a national cohort study design in Sweden.

METHODS

Individuals with alcohol use disorders (AUDs) were identified from several nationwide registers, and they were linked to the Swedish Hospital Discharge and Outpatients Registers to identify the incidence of ALS. Standardized incidence ratios (SIRs) were used to examine the risk of ALS amongst individuals with AUDs compared to those without AUDs.

RESULTS

A total of 7965 patients were diagnosed with ALS during the study period 1973-2010. The incidence of ALS amongst individuals with AUD was lower compared to individuals without AUD with an overall SIR of 0.54 (95% confidence interval 0.45-0.63). The study population was further stratified by gender, educational attainment, birth country, follow-up period and a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (as a proxy for smoking), and the observed inverse association between AUD and ALS was consistent for all the stratified analyses.

CONCLUSIONS

In this follow-up study, heavy alcohol consumption, as shown by registration for AUD, was inversely associated with the incidence of ALS. However, further studies are needed to disentangle the contribution of other potential confounding factors on the observed association.

Activation of α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors protects astrocytes against oxidative stress-induced apoptosis: implications for Parkinson's disease

Astrocytes have been implicated in the immune responses associated with Parkinson's disease (PD). Inhibition of astrocyte apoptosis is a novel strategy for the treatment of PD. Recent studies suggest that α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (α7-nAChRs) expressed in glial cells are critical links between inflammation and neurodegeneration in PD. However, little is known about their contribution to astrocyte apoptosis during the development of this disorder. In the present study, we showed that nicotine exerts a protective effect on H2O2-induced astrocyte apoptosis and glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) downregulation, and this effect was abolished by an α7-nAChR-selective antagonist. The underlying mechanisms might involve alleviation of mitochondrial membrane potential loss, stabilization of the Bax/Bcl-2 balance, and inhibition of cleaved caspase-9 activity through α7-nAChR activation. Systemic administration of nicotine dramatically alleviated MPTP-induced symptoms, protected dopaminergic neurons against degeneration, inhibited astrocytes and microglia activation in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and blocked the decrease of GDNF in the striatum by activating α7-nAChRs. Taken together these findings demonstrate, for the first time, that nicotine suppresses H2O2-induced astrocyte apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway through the stimulation of α7-nAChRs. Targeting α7-nAChRs expressed in astrocytes may be a novel therapeutic strategy for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

A novel biomarker Linc00974 interacting with KRT19 promotes proliferation and metastasis in hepatocellular carcinoma

Location-associated long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) was reported to interact with target protein via a cis-regulatory process especially for the Flank10kb class lncRNA. Based on this theory, we aimed to explore the regulatory mechanisms of Linc00974 and KRT19 (an lncRNA beyond the Flank10kb class with protein) when we first confirmed the aberrant expression in hepatocellular carcinoma in a previous study. Knockdown of Linc00974 resulted in an inhibition of cell proliferation and invasion with an activation of apoptosis and cell cycle arrest in vitro, which was also validated by a subcutaneous and tail vein/intraperitoneal injection xenotransplantation model in vivo. We further investigated the interaction pattern of Linc00974 and KRT19. MiR-642 was identified, by acting as the competing endogenous RNA in regulating Linc00974 and KRT19. Linc00974 was increased owing to an abnormal hypomethylation promoter, which induced the upregulation of KRT19 via ceRNA interaction, resulting in the activation of the Notch and TGF-β pathways as detected by cDNA microarray. We also discovered Linc00974F-1 stably expressed in the plasma. By the combined analysis of Linc00974F-1 with CYFRA21-1, we found that these joint indicators predicted growth and metastasis of tumor in HCC patients. In conclusion, the combination of Linc00974 and KRT19 may be novel indices for clinical diagnosis of tumor growth and metastasis in HCC, while Linc00974 may become a potential therapeutic target for the prevention of HCC progression.

Tigecycline resistance in Acinetobacter baumannii mediated by frameshift mutation in plsC, encoding 1-acyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase

Acinetobacter baumannii is an important pathogen of healthcare-associated infections and shows multidrug resistance. With the increasing application of tigecycline, isolates resistant to this antibiotic are of growing concern clinically. However, the definitive mechanism of tigecycline resistance remains unclear. To explore the mechanism of tigecycline resistance in A. baumannii, a tigecycline-resistant strain was obtained by increasing the concentration of the antimicrobial in liquid culture. Three mutations were identified by the whole genome comparison, including one synonymous substitution in a hypothetical protein and a frameshift mutation in plsC and omp38. The plsC gene was confirmed to cause decreased susceptibility to tigecycline by a complementation experiment and cellular membrane change was detected by flow cytometry. By measuring the relative growth rate, the fitness cost of plsC was estimated to be approximately 8 %. In conclusion, plsC was found to play an important role in tigecycline resistance in A. baumannii. The minor fitness cost of plsC indicates a high risk of the emergence and development of tigecycline resistance in A. baumannii.

SAMHD1 has differential impact on the efficacies of HIV nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors

Sterile alpha motif- and histidine/aspartic acid domain-containing protein 1 (SAMHD1) limits HIV-1 replication by hydrolyzing deoxynucleoside triphosphates (dNTPs) necessary for reverse transcription. Nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) are components of anti-HIV therapies. We report here that SAMHD1 cleaves NRTI triphosphates (TPs) at significantly lower rates than dNTPs and that SAMHD1 depletion from monocytic cells affects the susceptibility of HIV-1 infections to NRTIs in complex ways that depend not only on the relative changes in dNTP and NRTI-TP concentrations but also on the NRTI activation pathways.

Hodgkin lymphoma after autoimmune diseases by age at diagnosis and histological subtype

BACKGROUND

Increased risk of Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) associated with personal history of several autoimmune diseases (ADs), such as rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, sarcoidosis, and immune thrombocytopenic purpura, are known. Whether there are other HL-related ADs and whether the increased risk of HL after ADs holds across sex, age, year of diagnosis, or HL histological subtype is unclear.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We systematically analyzed the risk of HL in 878 161 Swedish patients diagnosed with 33 different ADs in 1964-2010. During ∼10-year follow-up of ADs patients, 371 incident HL cases were diagnosed.

RESULTS

Significantly increased overall standardized incidence ratio (SIR) for HL after ADs was 2.0 (95% confidence interval: 1.8-2.2); AD-specific SIRs: autoimmune hemolytic anemia 19.9 (7.2-43.6), sarcoidosis 10.3 (7.8-13.4), systemic lupus erythematosus 8.4 (5.2-12.9), immune thrombocytopenic purpura 7.0 (3.2-13.3), polyarteritis nodosa 6.6 (1.2-19.5), polymyositis/dermatomyositis 6.3 (2.0-14.9), Behcet's disease 5.6 (2.7-10.3), Sjögren's syndrome 5.0 (2.1-9.8), rheumatoid arthritis 3.2 (2.6-3.9), polymyalgia rheumatica 2.2 (1.4-3.5), and psoriasis 1.9 (1.3-2.6). Men with AD had slightly higher risk of HL (2.4, 2.0-2.7) compared with women (1.8, 1.5-2.0). Only 23% of ADs were diagnosed before age 35 years and the overall SIR for HL diagnosis before age 35 [1.4, (1.0-1.8)] was lower than that in older ages [35 ≤ age < 50: 2.1 (1.6-2.7); age ≥ 50: 2.2 (2.0-2.5)], except for sarcoidosis [age < 35: 19.3 (10.5-32.5); 35 ≤ age < 50: 10.4 (5.7-17.5); age ≥ 50: 8.4 (5.6-12.1)]. Risks of all classical HLs significantly increased after ADs: lymphocyte depletion 3.7 (1.5-7.6), lymphocyte-rich 3.7 (2.3-5.9), mixed cellularity 2.4 (1.8-3.2), and nodular sclerosis 1.7 (1.3-2.1).

CONCLUSION

Several, but not all ADs (11/33), had a positive association with all classical histological subtypes of HL. Higher risks of classical HL after polyarteritis nodosa, polymyositis/dermatomyositis, Behcet's disease, Sjögren's syndrome, polymyalgia rheumatica, and psoriasis were novel findings of this study.